'O'Franken Factor' kicks off Air America

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Registered: 03-18-2000
'O'Franken Factor' kicks off Air America
34
Wed, 03-31-2004 - 6:39pm

The gloves are coming off on talk radio. Boxer 


http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/03/31/media.radio.reut/index.html


Comedian-provocateur Al Franken is anchoring Wednesday's launch of a new liberal radio network -- Air America -- that promises irreverent voices from the opposite end of the political spectrum to conservatives like Rush Limbaugh who dominate talk radio.


"We're going to listen to (Limbaugh's) show and hold him up to scorn and ridicule," Franken said in a telephone interview.


The debut is auspiciously timed: the presidential candidates have come out swinging and liberal anger at Republican President Bush is at a fever pitch.


Network chief executive Mark Walsh said the goal was to skewer "pomposity" in high places regardless of political affiliation. "We're not in regime change radio," he said.


Walsh said his most recent job was as "the Internet guy" for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Franken also knows Kerry, who along with filmmaker Michael Moore is a likely Air America guest.


The network will also feature other radio neophytes such as actress Janeane Garofalo, rapper Chuck D and activist Robert Kennedy Jr. Each will be paired with a radio veteran.


Franken has kicked off with a three-hour midday show, "The O'Franken Factor," a mocking tribute to his broadcasting foe Bill O'Reilly's show on Fox News.


A former writer on NBC-TV's "Saturday Night Live", Franken wrote the best-selling comic diatribes "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" and last year's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." The latter triggered a short-lived lawsuit from Fox News.


Wine and cheese, or red meat?

A onetime high school wrestler, the 52-year-old Franken's recent antics have earned him the label of comic brawler: he tackled a heckler at a political event and offered to fight a magazine editor who said Democrats had "sissified" politics.


Franken turns serious when discussing Bush.


"This is a president who ran as a uniter not a divider and he's the most divisive president that I can remember," Franken said. "He had an opportunity to lead us in a new American century united in purpose and sacrifice and blew it completely. He wanted for some reason very, very, very badly to attack Iraq ... (which) I think has damaged the war on terror."


Limbaugh and other conservative radio figures such as Sean Hannity and Michael Savage -- whose dominance of talk radio balances what some see as mainstream media's liberal bias -- have already begun mocking the upstart network.


"They're saying we're a bunch of wine-swilling cheese-eating liberal idiots; that it'll never work; that liberals don't listen to the radio; that all we did was hire a bunch of comics and not anybody that knows anything about radio," Walsh said.


Franken admitted he drinks wine occasionally but doesn't know the difference between labels. "I do eat cheese; they're more accurate than usual there."


Observers are unsure about Air America's chances of success but it has drawn an avalanche of publicity as the first liberal-minded radio network.


In truth, the serious-minded Pacifica network and segments of National Public Radio have already staked out liberal positions.


"If these guys succeed, you know who's going to be banging down their doors to get them on? All the guys running conservative talk radio. Radio's not a political business. Politics is just a product ... a prop," said Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers, a magazine that covers the industry.


Air America is armed with $30 million in investor cash and a $30 million credit line being used to lease AM stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, with more stations promised.

cl-Libraone~

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 03-31-2004 - 10:27pm
Unless they can come up with real programing, and not scripted radio, the station is doomed to fail. The real programing is what is going to attract, and keep listeners. If it is scripted, it will work for a short while, but their 5 stations, will remain just that.

I guess it will be wait and see.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
IMO a radio program based on the hatred of President Bush is not going to fly. Non partisan people will just turn it off because they don't want to hear the hate spewing from their mouths. I just read an article about their first day on the air and that is all they could talk about (and also it wasn't very funny). Not any of the issues, just their hatred for Bush. If the Bush haters are their targeted audience, thats fine, but if they expect the average American to listen, their not going to make it for very long.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
What do you think of Rush Limbaugh then?
cl-Libraone~

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh very often. I listen to Glenn Beck. He is defintely conservative, but I think he is fair and says when a conservative is wrong about something. He has been critical of the Bush administration at times.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-07-2003
Thu, 04-01-2004 - 10:17am
>IMO a radio program based on the hatred of President Bush is not going to fly<

Hmmmm, that's interesting. How do you explain the overwhelming success of conservative talk radio hosts who do nothing but spew hatred for about every liberal (or remotely liberal) public figure they can get their hands on? "Average Americans" are eating that garbage up with a spoon.

If you listen to Al Franken, you will recognize that he isn't about creating hatred. Instead, he's made it his life mission to debunk conservative lies (as he does so well in his books) and provide a forum for truth-based political discussion.

Mainstream media does not have an extreme liberal bias (though I've noticed it taking on a distinctly more conservative tone these days). However, radio talk has tended to be nothing but extreme conservative nastiness. Al Franken simply wants to let liberals in on the whole talk radio thing without fear of being yelled and jeered at, cut off, and mocked.

It's about time!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Thu, 04-01-2004 - 10:25am

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 04-01-2004 - 10:28am
>> How do you explain the overwhelming success of conservative talk radio hosts

My theory on this is because conservatives did not have any other outlets, until Joe Scarborough and Hannity & Colmes. It would be interesting to see how the number of listeners is now, compared to before these two shows were popular on TV.

If they are going to continue with scripted dialogue on the show, I personally will give it a slightly longer life expectancy than Phil Donohue's attempt at a comeback, which I think lasted 6 months. If the format develops into a news analysis program, then I think it will have a fairly good chance at success. Dennis Miller said last night, if the entire reason of this station is just to attack Bush, and get him out of office, the station will lose much of its popularity after November, especially if Bush does lose. His point does make some sense.

It hurts that they are only on 5 stations at the moment, compared to when Bill O'Reilly debuted on over 240 stations.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 04-01-2004 - 10:30am
I listen to Rush only sometimes, but in my opinion he is too extreme on certain things.

I prefer to listen to Bill O'Reilly (as I think he tries to be a little more balanced than Rush instead of always on the attack).

Sean Hannity is good for me to get a chuckly out of every now and then, but again, sometimes he is too narrowsighted on issues for me to see any objectivity.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Thu, 04-01-2004 - 11:06am
Ol' Rush built a career out of spewing Clinton hate. What's the difference?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Thu, 04-01-2004 - 11:22am
I'm really not a Rush fan myself.

I don't know where you live, but if you live in an area that carries Glenn Beck, I think you would enjoy him also. He talks about a variety of real issues, not just political issues. For instance, today he talked a little about energy issues, the incident in Fallujah etc. He doesn't base his ideas on hate.

I don't get Bill O'Reilly in my area, but sometimes I can get Sean Hannity from a distant radio station, if the wind is blowing just right.

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